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Fred Stenson offers critique sessions at Elephant Mountain Literary Festival

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By Contributor
May 26th, 2017

For the second year in a row, Nelson’s Elephant Mountain Literary Festival will provide the opportunity for 10 local writers to receive one-on-one feedback on their work from a noted Canadian author.

Alberta novelist, screenwriter, and educator Fred Stenson is this year’s writer-in-residence for the Holley Rubinsky Blue Pencil Sessions, named for the late Kaslo author whose bequest has made this possible. The sessions will be held at the Nelson Public Library July 6 and 7.

Registration opens June 10 at www.emlfestival.com. Places will be awarded on a first come, first served basis. Registered writers will be asked to submit in advance a project description and up to 2,500 words of fiction, creative nonfiction or screenwriting for discussion and critique in a 40-minute one-on-one session with Stenson.

In addition to the Blue Pencil Sessions, Stenson will give a public talk on the writing craft on Thursday, July 6 at 7:30 pm in Room 310 of Selkirk College’s Kootenay Studio Arts, 606 Victoria St., Nelson. Admission is by donation.

Stenson has written 19 books and 150 films and videos. He was director of the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre for 15 years and served as the 2015-16 writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta. His fiction titles include Who by Fire, The Great Karoo, Lightning, and The Trade, whichwon three Canadian literary prizes and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

The Great Karoo won the Grant MacEwan Writer’s Prize and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His guide for fiction writers is titled Thing Feigned or Imagined.

The 6th annual Elephant Mountain Literary Festival runs July 6-9 in Nelson. This year’s featured presenters include Stenson, novelist Joy Kogawa, First Nations author Lee Maracle, and the Globe and Mail’s Western Canada cultural correspondent Marsha Lederman. For the complete schedule and event tickets go to www.emlfestival.com.

Photo Caption: Fred Stenson is this year’s writer-in-residence for the Holley Rubinsky Blue Pencil Sessions. — photo courtesy Greg Gerrard

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